Vanished
by Zenin
Summary: It's summer. Again. And for once, Kinomoto Sakura is not fighting theiving sorcerors or rebel forces of magic. But all her dreams of relaxation go flying out the window when trouble strikes. People are missing, and Sakura is the only one who can find them
1. The Beginning

Summary_: People are disappearing...and Sakura is the only one who can stop it. Seventeen-year-old Kinomoto Sakura may look like a normal girl, no stronger than the very flower for which she was named. But stronger powers lie within: the strength to fight, the ability to save, and the will to live._

**Vanished**_  
_by Zenin

_~Prologue~ _

My legs folded beneath me and I crumpled to the floor, sighing explosively as I rested my forehead against the tufty grain of the carpet. The folded scrap of paper lay where it had fallen…on the edge of the desk that I had been dusting. I stayed where I had collapsed, weary eyes closed. 

The room was in shambles, the vacuum cleaner still in the middle of the floor with its cord trailing around the corner. A pile of soiled cleaning rags was sitting limply near the doorway, a stuffed black trash bag beside it. Assorted bottles of cleanser lined the edge of the wall. My father's office had needed this cleaning forever it seemed, and since he and my brother Touya were away on an archaeological dig, it was the perfect opportunity to give the room a thorough airing.

I seldom had the house all to myself, especially during the summer. Summers were usually the busiest time of the year for me. They were a time of magic…literally. You see, at the age of ten, I had discovered — and, erm, set loose — a rebellious set of magical cards…cards that contained a lot of power. That was only the start of my discoveries. 

As the year went on, I found within myself magic that even Keroberos — the Guardian Beast of the cards — had never imagined. It was old magic, ancient magic…magic that the cards would obey. I became a card captor, destined to capture the wayward cards in order to keep my small hometown, Tomeoda, safe from the their destructive capabilities. Of course, I never would have been able to do this alone. Tomoyo was there, keeping my spirits high with her contagious enthusiasm. Kero was there to instruct me in my newfound power. And there was also Li Syaoran, the boy-rival who arrived in Japan shortly after the cards escaped. He was, according to his ancestry, the heir to the Li Clan's fortune and true heir to the cards. The Cards, you see, had been created by his grandfather's grandfather's grandfather (or something like that), and he was determined to bring back what had been lost for so many generations. So, naturally, he hated my guts. He was a condescending, unnerving jerk of an opponent. But even he, after time, started to help me. 

Let's not mention the fact that I ultimately got a huge crush on him. That fact is totally worthless; since after I was chosen as the Cards' mistress, Li Syaoran only hated me more and soon returned to his ancestral home: Hong Kong. I sent him letters, but after he sent me one crushingly nasty reply, I never heard from him again.

Anyway, after I became the Card Mistress, rebellious sorcerers who wanted power and typically had a pretty big grudge against the former Master of the Cards — Clow Reed — soon swamped me. I had to fight all of them alone. I might have caved in if it hadn't been for the reincarnation of Clow Reed, Hiirigizawa Eriol, who became my instructor…in a roundabout sort of way. The way Eriol trained me was by putting me into danger. He would basically try to kill me, and I had to find a way to save my life without hurting the Cards.

In the resulting chaos that followed, I decided to take up kickboxing. I merrily kicked Eriol back to his country, England, and settled down for a pleasant rest.

All that was seven years ago. And every year I have had to battle some sorcerer or mystical presence. This year, thankfully, had been blessedly quiet.

Which should explain why I was now facedown in the carpet wearing my cheerleading outfit and busily trying to ignore the small, seemingly harmless scrap of paper. The piece of paper that was now floating eerily from my father's desk to land neatly in front of my bowed head. 

"Nope," I muffled. "Not going to open it. I'm having a break this summer. That means no magic, got that? _Nada_."

The paper rustled impatiently. I scooted away from it, my face still buried in the musty carpet. Let me tell you, that carpet really needed shampooing. But finally, after what seemed to be hours (and was actually only about five minutes), the smell of the carpet got to me. I lifted my head just enough to gasp a lungful of air…which, incidentally, ended up being just enough room for the paper to slip right beneath my nose. Against my will, my eyes caught the words and I read the note.

"_Hey Sakura_," it read. "_Sexy outfit. You really have nice legs, you know?_"

I sprang upright, immediately searching around for a robe or towel to cover myself with. The cheerleading uniforms that my school supplied were little better than sports bras and mini skirts. It was embarrassing to be caught in them when not cheerleading. I mean, hey…in a troupe, it isn't all that noticeable. But solo, it's rather…uncomfortable. "Eriol!" I squeaked. "Stop watching me, you pervert!"

The letters on the note seemed to melt away as a new phrase formed. "_Sakura-chan's always so cute when she's blushing!_"

That reminded me of something. My eyes narrowed as I crossed my arms protectively over my bare midriff. "Does Tomoyo know that you watch girls like this? Where is she, by the way?"

Tomoyo had been cordially invited to spend the summer in England with her big-time crush, Eriol. At first, I could not believe that she actually thought of him as anything other than sadistic, but after a while, it was all too clear that the two were perfectly suited to one another. They connected in a way that I could not even _begin_ to understand.

Another sentence lazily scrawled itself onto the paper. "_Hai, and she's right here with me._" 

I sighed. "Look, I'm kind of busy right now and I really don't—"

"_Sakura-chan, this is Tomoyo. Hi! I just wanted to let you know that something might come in the mail sometime today and…um…well, just to give you a head's up…_"

"What have you done?"

That sounded kind of harsh, didn't it? Well, I had a perfectly good reason for saying that. I mean, Tomoyo's life goal is to plan every minute of my existence on earth, and to get it all on video. Touya has gotten kind of annoyed with Tomoyo's cameras, and finally made his point clear to me by giving me a book for my birthday, entitled _How To Know You're Being Stalked._ I made good use of the book by firmly hitting my brother over the head with it.

"_Well...you know that camp Takashi is going to? The one in Ya Valley. They're kind of short on staff there, and since you looked like you were getting a bit bored with being alone, I just thought that you'd like to go volunteer or something."_

"There's more to it, isn't there?" I asked suspiciously.

_"Well...hai. You see, people have been disappearing from Camp Shuniji for the past three weeks. And besides...didn't you say you needed a vacation? This should be easy. Just go there, use one of your Cards to find the people, and there you go! A free, two-month vacation guaranteed. It's got mystery, intrigue, guys... Um...Sakura-chan, is there some reason as to why you are wearing your cheerleading uniform on a Saturday?_"

"All my other stuff is in the washing machine. And no," I said through gritted teeth. "I really don't want a vacation. This," I waved my hand at my dad's office, "is my vacation, Tomoyo. And what's more is: I actually feel rested. At least, I feel rested when freakish perverts keep their eyes to themselves." I added darkly, tugging the short hem of my skirt to cover a few more inches of leg.

"_Sakura, these people need you_…"

"Do I look like the Lost and Found?" I stormed. "I'm not! I don't go into the whole missing people thing. You yourself said last year that I needed a break! Well, going to work isn't exactly taking a break, okay? I'm not going."

Had anyone been passing by my house, they might have wondered why a girl was dressed in her cheerleading uniform on a Saturday. They also might have wondered why the girl was yelling at a piece of paper. And I'm sure that they, worthy pedestrians that they are, would agree that I definitely needed a break from whatever it was that was plaguing me.

"Listen up, Tomoyo," I cried, snatching the piece of paper up and glaring heatedly at it. "Take that ticket back and whatever else you sent. And you," I snarled at the invisible Eriol, "If you dare watch me again, I swear I'll—"

The paper fluttered huffily from my hands and disappeared with a small _pop_. I sank to the carpet and rubbed my head with my hands. A headache was beginning to form.

"I'm not going," I whispered stubbornly. "I'm not."

_________________________________________________________________________________

^_^

It sounds a lot like SOTR, doesn't it?  Well, similar, anyways.  But that's my point.  Because, you see, I wasn't quite content with SOTR and the way things turned out.  Sure, I had a few interesting ideas with that story.  It was fun to write and I don't think that I have ever felt so happy and inspired as I did the time I made the Condiment Woman turn out to be a card.  Ah…such wonderful memories…

I'm making this story into a sort of parallel universe thing to SOTR: there will be some of the same characters, and the plot _setting_ is the same (a camp named Shuiji — which ultimately means _rainbow_), but the plot itself is a little different.  And what happens at the camp is going to be different.  

This is being written purely for _fun_.  If you want to review, well, that'd be nice.  If you don't want to review…well, that would be fine as well.  Anyways, I have another chapter to get out, so I guess I see ya later.  ^_^  Bye!

~Zenin


	2. A Home Away From Home

**Vanished  
**by Zenin

«

Tomoyo will pay for this. Because she's the one who started it. It's all her fault.

Let me begin by saying that I totally did not intend to end up at the camp. But if you dreamt about starving children in Africa every time you closed your eyes to sleep, I'm guessing your decision would be the same as mine.

Which is kind of weird, you know, because the problem I was faced with had nothing to do with starving African children. I guess Eriol got his manipulative little visions a bit mixed up or something. Whichever way, it worked.

I went.

The staff was kind, anyway. They showed me the facilities – which were very nice, by the way. They had an Olympic size swimming pool, hot tub, hiking trails…even a dojo; which was a plus, considering the fact that I spend at least an hour a night practicing my kickboxing skills. Then there was the cafeteria, right next to a small café type building where you could spend your well-earned money on ice cream or milkshakes. And then there was the chapel.

According to the enthusiastic history buff, Shinkokami – who happened to be the chief of staff – the entire camp used to be a small town way back in the 1800's. Evidently, though, when the introduction of electricity came along, people got fed up with their reclusive habits and decided to move in closer to the cities and try out the new idea of indoor plumbing.

I admit, the whole outhouse thing was a bit daunting to me. "_You guys don't have indoor plumbing?_"

But you can't really blame me. I mean, what sort of vacation was I getting myself into? No running water? Where the heck did people bathe? And how was the pool maintenanced? You can imagine my horror.

Shinkokami quickly explained to me that the camp had rigged up an intricate pipe system that regularly kept water from the river flowing into camp. They had running water, he assured me patiently. Just not hot. If you wanted hot water, you did it the old fashioned way, by heating it a kettle at a time on your respective cabin's woodstove.

It was a little home away from home, as Kero sarcastically pointed out.

All this I endured, figuring that once I was able to chat with Yamazaki Takashi – the schoolmate who had referred me to the Camp Shuniji staff – I'd be able to sort out their disappearing problem in no time. And then, of course, I'd go back home and get some _real_ rest and relaxation.

That was before I found out that Takashi was no longer a staff member.

"What?" I snapped out quickly. "You've got to be kidding me. I mean, I just talked to him yesterday. He was here."

"Hai." One of the counselors, a sort of plain-faced brunette named Mioko, nodded. "But that was before his girlfriend got sick. What was her name now? Chi…Chiharu, I think. Yeah, that's it. She got sick, so he had to leave."

The girls all exchanged glances, smiling knowingly. "Isn't that romantic?" one of them said wistfully.

"I think it's kinda sad, actually," said another. "That Takashi guy was hot."

Disgust was about the only emotion I felt at that time. "He left? Without telling me?"

"What's it to you?" One of the girls, who had remained pretty quiet until just then, fastened her carefully made up blue eyes on me. "What are you, his other girlfriend? Or is it just wishful thinking?"

I returned her stare with an icy glare of my own. "No," I said shortly. "We're just friends. Chiharu is my friend, too, though. I would have liked to know how she got sick."

The blue-eyed girl flipped back her beautiful, raven hair and smiled meaningfully at me. "I _see_. So it's not the boyfriend you're after. It's his girlfriend you want."

It took some considerable willpower to convince myself not to drive my fist into her lovely face. Instead, I settled for a more diplomatic approach.

"Would you like me to break all your fingers now, or wait until after dinner? Because," I said sweetly, "I'm always open to rescheduling."

It was pretty interesting, watching all the colour go out of someone's face. Obviously, no one had said anything like that to her before. Well, I smiled to myself, there's a first time for everything. And this would definitely not be the last, if I was going to be stuck here all summer with that catty witch.

Her name was Kohana, I later found out. And she, according to all the other female counselors, seemed to believe that everyone was beneath her. Everyone – with the exception of a certain male counselor.

"Well," said Mioko uncomfortably. "He _is_ rather hot. Godlike, even. A regular Hyperion."

I didn't bother to correct her Greek mythology, despite the fact that Hyperion happened to be one of the older gods, and had a sort of grizzled beard in all the artwork I had seen. And, well, grizzled beards…they don't really appeal to me. I'm not sure about Mioko, though.

But anyway, seeing as I didn't know or care about any of the male counselors, I decided to call it a day. It's a tiring business, being a cardcaptor. It's kind of like trying to be a detective, mathematician, law enforcer, and doctor all rolled into one. Find a problem, analyze problem, fix problem, and then clean up the ensuing mess.

I was just in the detective phase. The others were sure to follow quickly.

It was only eleven o'clock when I stumbled into my cabin, but I felt like my feet were filled with lead. I just wanted to sleep.

That's when I noticed all these pairs of big, curious eyes staring at me.

"You're the new counselor, aren't you?" one little girl lisped. She looked to be about nine years old.

I nodded shortly. "Yes. I am. My name is Kinomoto Sakura."

"Konbanwa," the eight little girls chimed. One of them threw a piece of candy at me. A peppermint.

Oddly enough, this show of acceptance sort of gave me a warm feeling for a moment. "Konbanwa," I replied with a tired smile.

Then I tumbled into my bed – discreetly placed in an adjoining room – and promptly fell asleep.

The following morning brought with it the fresh scent of rain. Which was nice, really, because the day before had been so unbearably hot, I thought I was going to die before the end of the summer. So when I walked out onto the cabin porch to check out the weather, it really made my day to have a big fat raindrop splash down on my nose. My girls, though, were not so happy.

"It's raining?" a slender, blonde haired girl whined. "Not _again_."

"Damn," said another.

I stared at this one, shocked. "Don't swear, Akemi!"

The tiny red head glanced casually up at me. "Damn is not a swear word," she stated matter-of-factly. "But _bastard_ is. And _sh_–"

I quickly covered her mouth with my hand. "Who taught you all those?" I wanted to know.

"My brother. Akashi."

I felt uneasy about that one. "Your brother would not, by chance, be here at this camp, would he?"

"Yup."

Great. Just what I needed: an all-knowing brother teaching my girls how to cuss. I stifled a groan and shepherded the girls back inside to change into their play clothes.

One of the nice things about this camp was the fact that I did not have to wear a uniform. All that they required of us was that we wear these nametags on ribbons around our necks – you know, a sort of staff ID. That way, no one would mistake any one of us for a camper.

Which, in my case, is actually a very good thing. I've been mistaken for a twelve year old more times than I can count. Especially when I wear a hat.

The basic job of a counselor is this – you herd your children to wherever they need to go for the day's activities, then you leave them there to have fun. You rejoin them for meal times and for campfire later at night.

The rest of the day is yours to squander any way you like. Swimming, playing sports, hiking…there was a myriad of things to do. A goodly portion of the girls liked to spend their free time flirting.

Superficial morons.

I had an interesting dilemma before me. What was _I_ going to do?

After I had eaten breakfast with my campers and safely delivered them into the hands of some senior staff member who was orchestrating some field games, I headed to the administration building.

There were some questions I wanted to ask Shinkokami's secretary. And no, I wasn't about to go: "Hey, I heard that a whole bunch of people disappeared from this camp two months ago. Could you tell me which cabins the missing people were in and when they disappeared?"

No, I'm a lot more subtle. Tomoyo had given me a list of the missing people's names. I chose one and wrote it one the inside of my hand. Thus armed, I entered the office.

It was a little toasty inside. Obviously, Shinkokami was about as happy about the rain as my group of little campers. Me, I adored it. I mean, it was just a light drizzle. Nothing to worry about. That's why, instead of going into full out rain gear, I had simply decked myself out in a pair of beige capris and a white sleeveless shirt.

Yeah, they thought I was pretty crazy, too. But hey, it was the height of fashion. I was dressed to kill.

The secretary glanced up from her minesweeper game on the computer and looked at me. "Oh, ohayo. Do you need something?"

I smiled, feigning uncertainty, and said, "Well, I found a letter in my mailbox. It's addressed to someone else, though. Could you tell me which cabin ---- is in, so that I can put in her box?"

The secretary smiled back at me. "That's thoughtful of you. Most people usually don't care. They either open it themselves, or just leave out for anyone to take." She shook her head sadly and exited out of her minesweeper game. "Kids these days. What was the name again?"

"Kuang Noriko."

She rapidly keyed in the name and scrolled down the screen. Then her expression altered. She first looked surprised, then curious. Finally, she looked back up at me. "Are you sure that that's the correct name?"

"Hai," I said slowly. "Why?"

"Do you have the letter with you?"

"Not at this moment. I left it in my box for safekeeping."

More lies. Oh well.

"Hm." More typing ensued. The secretary sighed. "Gomen nasai, but that girl quit working here a long time ago. She's been gone for over a month. They said she had a really bad case of the flu."

"Oh." I frowned. "Alright then. Do you know which cabin she was in?"

The secretary scrolled down the computer a little more, then replied, "Cabin forty-eight."

"Ah." I turned to leave. "Thanks for your help."

"Wait…are you Kinomoto Sakura?"

I froze. Now, you may think I was being a bit silly for getting so tense and all, but I've had more than one week's worth of trouble begun by someone saying that phrase. I turned, but only halfway – you know, to offer as small a target as possible. "Yes."

The secretary was still sitting behind her desk, smiling at me. "Oh, good. Mr. Shinkokami did hope I'd catch you."

_Did he?_

"Our current instructor at the dojo is completely swamped with students. Anyway, it says in your file that you are a black belt in…" She squinted at the screen, "Isshinryu?"

I slowly began to relax. "So you need an assistant instructor, is that it?"

"Hai." She glanced up from the computer and looked at me pleadingly. "Can you do it? I mean, I understand if you just want to spend your free time relaxing. Taking care of young ones can be so demanding. But we'd really appreciate any help we can get."

I shrugged. "Sure."

The woman beamed at me. "Great! Thank you so much, Sakura." Her attention happily traveled back to her renewed minesweeper game. "You're a lifesaver."

Uh-huh.

**――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――**

I know. This really isn't my style. At all. But let's just say I'm trying out something new. Who knows, maybe this'll turn out to be a good fic after all.

It's off to a slow start, anyway.

−Zenin


End file.
